Worth buying Trex 550E V2 now?

[yongary]

Is this worth buying or should I just get the newest version? Most likely, I will be flying it to practice all orientation inverted hovering for a while. I can do all orientation hovering with confidence on micro helicopter and moving to larger heli.

Align Trex 550E V2.
Align 550mm mains
Align 92mm tails
2mm carbon frames
Aluminum battery tray
KDE grip arms
Align DS615 svos on cyclic
Align DS655 svo on rudder
Scorpion HKIII 4025-1100kv motor
Castle 100 esc
Castle 20amp bec pro
iKon FBL with polarity protection
DSMX satellites

[Coopz]

I have a older trex 550e and it flys perfectly with zero upgrades. I just do light 3d, I'm not into the violent zigzagging and tic toks. I prefer neat flying and for that it's perfect.

[gstoneberg]

My Trex550s (v1 & then later v2) were my first foray into large helicopters. The older 550s still fly great and also auto great. However, they are a BIG step up from a micro. It takes you into the realm of helicopters that can hurt you so they have to be flown with more respect and pretty much require a field to fly in. Crash costs are pretty hefty as well. That said, they certainly will do the things you want. I've not found parts hard to find, but you will have to pay attention to which gear sets you have.

Good luck!

[yongary]

Thanks, how much would you be willing to pay for the setup I listed? Just wanted to get some idea on market price

[yakky]

The 550 is a great heli, but at this point you are going to be crashing a lot. The 550 is expensive to fix. I'd get the 470LP.

[gstoneberg]

Originally Posted by yongary

Thanks, how much would you be willing to pay for the setup I listed? Just wanted to get some idea on market price

I bought mine 2 and 3 years ago and paid $500 for one and $475 for the other. Both were BNF to spektrum, had the stock align motor and ds610 servos. I personally would not go over $500 for an older 550, but I have not priced them in a long time. The iKon is a plus.

[Dogdipstick]

I paid 350$ for a 550e V3-ish complete w/o main blades or FBL controller 6-8 mo. ago. Very clean no damage. Still a very impressive machine if you have never flown a big r/c helo. Performs good ( never had experience with top-mount motors or battery slide tray helicopters, parts will be around for a while it shares many parts with the later lines.

The only real thing you need to do is buy a KDE one way, stronger than stock OWB.

Strong airframe.

Options for blade lengths, heads, canopys, motors, ect.

Resale value is going down, given you can buy a complete 550X airframe for not much more than crash costs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Align-Trex-5...4AAOSwUEVYEQdW

[yongary]

He is asking $550. I think I am going to offer him $450 and see what he says

[Dogdipstick]

This might still be available.


https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=772460

[Thestructured]

The thing about older helis, that are still fairly modern like the 550 v2 is that they still fly just fine and will still perform better than most peoples' skill levels.

My first large heli was a 550 v2 like that and being a noob at the time I ended up plowing it a few times and then buying another one which I still have (V3, that I've thrown 550X electronics into).

$500 shipped would be pretty fair in my opinion. I think I paid $600 for one two years ago while the 550L was the current model. The new 550X is really just a 550L with a new head and motor and longer boom. Same frames.

I have a friend with an older V1 that still flies great as well.

Not sure what you're currently flying but a 550 feels like a cadillac after flying 450 or smaller sizes. It will feel SO stable and smooth compared to micros. The only issue with 550 class aligns is that they're designed for 6s and once you want to get into hard 3d flying, while they CAN do it, they are hard on batteries and so you'll need high end packs that can handle it.

I've had a 550 with the 600MX first, then my v3 came with a 730mx (850kv), and now I've thrown the new 730mx (960kv) version into it to make it more fast 3d friendly running high headspeeds. While it flies and doesn't bog, my current cheap batteries are coming down HOT.

For sport flight and mild 3d with the other motors it was fine.

Anyways, yes, it's still a viable machine and parts are still readily available. Go for it, you'll love the machine.

[yongary]

Thanks, the biggest heli I have flown was Trex 450 (12 years ago). I was able to do some sport flying and some flips/rolls but the biggest issue was the size. My eyes just can't see them right up in the air.

[yongary]

Can someone tell me if I can use this battery in trex550? I use this battery for my rc car so it would be very nice if I can use it for both helicopter and car

http://www.smc-racing.net/index.php?...product_id=232

[Dogdipstick]

Should be fine? 4300 mAh and 40c.

[Thestructured]

That battery will work fine. The most common size to use with this is 5000mah. If you're not cranking the headspeed to crazy numbers then you'll still get around 5 minutes out of that battery.

On a 6s 5000, sport flight around 2200 rpm I was able to get around 6 minutes.

At around 2400 rpm beating on it the whole time I got about 4 minutes.

With my new motor, at 2650 rpm, 3d flight the entire time, I'm also around 4 minutes, maybe a tiny bit less.

[Coopz]

I found the difference to be night and day going from a 450 to a 550. 450s are ultra twitchy and difficult to master, but they are also cheap to fix when you land upside down and if you can fly a 450 well you can probably fly any heli.

Just like rc planes, the bigger they are the better they fly

[learnedthehardway]

Bigger helis are definitely a lot smoother and feel like they're moving in slow motion compared to a smaller heli. You have to be careful though cause it's a bit deceptive as they can cover a lot of ground very quick once they get moving.

If you like fast flip/roll rates you might actually be a little disappointed. Even with the control rates cranked up I had to run more headspeed than I wanted to get the flip/roll rates I wanted.

Also have to fly them where no one else is around or may come around that isn't aware of the danger involved so the grab and run around the corner to sneak some flights in after work convenience can be lost depending on where you live/fly.

I must be a black sheep cause I prefer a 450 in every way except visibility and wind resistance. 500 swinging 470mn felt sluggish, had to drive 5x as far to fly it, spent more on a set of blades than I did on a couple 450 crash rebuilds, more expensive lipos and charging setup.

Sold my 500's, I can slow my 450's down fine but couldn't seem to speed up the bigger heli just right to suit my taste. Sure I could've got used to it and tuned it better but the lack of convenience and the fear of crash costs didn't work for me. Bigger isn't better for everyone. YMMV

[Thestructured]

Originally Posted by learnedthehardway

Bigger helis are definitely a lot smoother and feel like they're moving in slow motion compared to a smaller heli. You have to be careful though cause it's a bit deceptive as they can cover a lot of ground very quick once they get moving.

If you like fast flip/roll rates you might actually be a little disappointed. Even with the control rates cranked up I had to run more headspeed than I wanted to get the flip/roll rates I wanted.

Also have to fly them where no one else is around or may come around that isn't aware of the danger involved so the grab and run around the corner to sneak some flights in after work convenience can be lost depending on where you live/fly.

I must be a black sheep cause I prefer a 450 in every way except visibility and wind resistance. 500 swinging 470mn felt sluggish, had to drive 5x as far to fly it, spent more on a set of blades than I did on a couple 450 crash rebuilds, more expensive lipos and charging setup.

Sold my 500's, I can slow my 450's down fine but couldn't seem to speed up the bigger heli just right to suit my taste. Sure I could've got used to it and tuned it better but the lack of convenience and the fear of crash costs didn't work for me. Bigger isn't better for everyone. YMMV

I think for folks that are flying in yards, parks, or private property living in the country, a lot of what you've said could apply.

The larger heli crowd seems to be predominantly people flying at dedicated fields or clubs, with some exceptions of people with large plots of land available to them.

Nothing wrong with any size if you have the space. I personally don't care for flying small helis at our club for example, because there's lots of space and they're hard to see. As for roll rates, it depends on the heli and setup. I like my rates super fast and haven't had any issues getting that on any heli, not the 550, and not on either of my 700's.

[learnedthehardway]

Originally Posted by Thestructured

I think for folks that are flying in yards, parks, or private property living in the country, a lot of what you've said could apply.

The larger heli crowd seems to be predominantly people flying at dedicated fields or clubs, with some exceptions of people with large plots of land available to them.

Nothing wrong with any size if you have the space. I personally don't care for flying small helis at our club for example, because there's lots of space and they're hard to see. As for roll rates, it depends on the heli and setup. I like my rates super fast and haven't had any issues getting that on any heli, not the 550, and not on either of my 700's.

I could get them close enough to be satisfying even though it was still a bit slower than what I was used to, but had to run the hs so high it shaved 1.5min off the flight time compared to running the hs I wanted to. That added hs also made cyclic response too touchy so I'd slow it down with this or that setting but couldn't seem to get everything exactly where I wanted.

Felt like I was chasing my tail forever tuning instead of flying. If you run fast rates on a 450 even silly high rates on a bigger heli will feel slow in comparison, at least it did to me. Mainly rotating on the elevator axis or elev and aile simultaneously, simple aileron rolls were fine.

I do believe you're correct on it being setup since my 500 had servos that were a little slower than my 450's, plus my lack of experience in tuning a larger model were the real issue there. Not the helicopter itself.

With a tight budget and not wanting to drive 45min one way to the airfield and watch planks fly for an hour+ between flights which bored me to death and dug into my budget even further with added travel costs, it simply wasn't practical for my particular situation.

Have a few nice places close to home to fly at, paying membership fees and driving almost 30mi to fly is silly for me. Have 3 spots less than 1mi from home, 2 of which are plenty big enough to fly a large model but people do show up to use those areas for other recreational activities.

I move to the next spot if anyone is there but sometimes people show up midsession. In the dead of winter it wasn't an issue but when the weather's nice I always got screwed and had to pack up prematurely. Plenty of space and would have taken a total loss of control and a 1 in 1,000,000 shot to injure anyone but people, mechanics and electronics aren't 100% predictable...aka- shit happens.

Anyways, I just wanted to offer a different perspective since it's easy to get overexcited and not think all the factors through before making a purchase. I think most people aren't living check to check and at least hit the club on the weekend so it wouldn't be a total waste for them like it was for me..lol